Pulse Creative Jobs in Chicago, IL (NOW HIRING)

Agency:
Weber Shandwick
Job Function:
Creative
Job Subfunction:
Creative Direction
Job Description:
ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR (ART OR COPY)
If you're reading this, you're probably scrolling on your phone. Perfect. Let's talk.
The Weber Shandwick Collective (TWSC) is looking for an Associate Creative Director - art or copy, we're open - who lives and breathes the internet. If you have a running theory about the next big TikTok trend, can spot the next biggest creator or meme format before it's viral, and obsess over how to break through in the new media landscape, you might just have found your calling.
This is a role for someone who wants their fingerprints on some of the biggest brands in the world, and who's ready to move from executing great work to shaping it. You'll bring ideas to the table that spark joy, ignite shares, and earn a permanent spot in people's lives. We want the kind of ideas that don't just ride a wave, but that create one.
Let's be clear: this is not the job where you're cranking out uninspired work and the same old rinse-and-repeat ideas. This is the job, and the agency, where ideas meet cultural currency. Where you'll help create the campaign that everyone shares before lunch. Where ideas become award-winning work that's discussed around the country.
This role is built for the Senior Art Director or Senior Copywriter ready to make the jump, or the ACD who wants a bigger canvas and a shorter distance between their idea and the work going live.
So, let's talk specifics.
What You'll Do
Make the work: You'll be hands-on, concepting and building attention-grabbing ideas from blank page to finished craft. You'll work alongside strategy, account, media relations, and analytics to make sure your ideas feed algorithms and transcend platforms.
Sharpen the idea, balancing craft and strategy: Whether your instrument is a headline or a layout, you'll help guard the voice and visual identity of every brand you touch. Stay playful, but always purposeful. Your work won't just entertain, it'll deliver results.
Bring others up with you: You'll mentor junior creatives and help set the bar on craft - not by managing from a distance, but by being in the work next to them.
Be the pulse of culture: Research platforms, subcultures, emerging media, and niche communities to unearth untapped opportunities. You need to know before anyone else what Gens Alpha and Z are doing on social channels, why brands are jumping all over a meme, what conversations are capturing the attention of journalists (and why), and who is poised to become the next big thing in the cultural conversation. These inputs will shape the ideas you develop and bring to teams and clients.
Help sell it: You'll present your thinking with conviction - internally, and increasingly in the room with clients.
What You'll Bring
Obsessive curiosity: About trends, people, platforms, memes, and the mechanics of why certain things just work.
A social media sixth sense: You know which platforms matter most, what kind of content works where, and how to surprise people in their scroll.
Pop culture proficiency: From mainstream moments to niche internet corners, you stay plugged into what everyone's talking about, and what they're about to.
Experience: 5-8 years in art direction, design, or copywriting - especially if you've worked on earned, digital, and social-first campaigns, or for culturally relevant brands.
Craft, whichever your discipline: If you're an art director, you'll need to work quickly and accurately across Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator) and presentation software (PowerPoint). Bonus points for illustration, After Effects, photography, retouching, filmmaking, videography, editorial, animation, HTML. If you're a copywriter, you'll need range - from a scroll-stopping caption to a script to a manifesto that actually means something - and the instinct to know which the moment calls for.
A sense of humor: If you can't laugh at yourself (or at least at the internet), we're not the place for you.
Why You'll Love It Here (Other than the Snacks)
You'll work with some of the best creatives in the business, a team fueled by bold ideas, cultural insights, and enough caffeine to power a small city.
You'll have the freedom to experiment, fail forward, and redefine what "earned-first creativity" means.
You'll create work that matters to brands, to audiences, and to culture at large.
You'll get real runway. This is a step-up role, and we treat it like one - with the mentorship, the reps, and the visibility to grow into what's next.
Final Thought (Because We're Big on Storytelling)
This job isn't just about being clever. It's about becoming the creative who reshapes how brands communicate in this endlessly scrolling, algorithm-ruled world. It's about showing up every day with fresh ideas and a love for the craft. And maybe, just maybe, it's about finally justifying all the hours you spend on TikTok.
If this sounds like you, let's create something worth bookmarking.
Send us your portfolio, résumé, and a list of the accounts and trends you're loving right now. Because if we're going to shape culture, we want to know you're already in it.
Cue the end slate. Let's make some magic. $109,000-$145,000
Omnicom's policy requires employees to work in the office for a minimum of three days a week, unless additional in-office days are directed by their agency or manager. Our objective is to increase this requirement over time, and many of our agencies as well as Omnicom's corporate group already require five days of in-office attendance.
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